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Whether you’re thinking about making an important purchase, planning a trip, or consolidating higher cost credit card balances – our SF Fire Credit Union Platinum Visa® can help make it happen.

Same Low Rate on Purchases, Cash Advances, and Balance Transfers

Our Platinum Visa, with rates as low as 7.25%* is a smart choice for your financial needs. Not a “teaser” or introductory rate, just a straightforward rate that applies to every purchase, cash advance, and balance transfer.

Travel Friendly Features

There’s no better card to take on vacation. Our card features no foreign currency transaction or exchange fees (which normally range between 1-3%). Our card also comes with features including Auto Collision Waiver on car rentals and Emergency Travel Assistance. In addition, we’ve begun issuing EMV chip-enabled cards, which offer enhanced security and usability when traveling abroad. (Existing cardholders: if you haven’t yet received your chip enabled card, you should expect it in the coming weeks!)

Free Points Program**

For every dollar spent using your SF Fire Credit Union Platinum Visa, you earn an Extra AwardsTM point, which can be redeemed for cash, unrestricted travel, and gift cards from hundreds of retailers.

Save the date! Join us Saturday, August 15th from 9am to 6pm and Sunday, August 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Cow Palace at 2600 Geneva Avenue in Daly City (MAP) for our Pre-Owned Car Sale.

Convenience is Key

Our loan officers will be present both days of the car sale to answer any financing questions you may have, and to help guide you through the process if this is your first auto purchase.

Great Selection

We work with AutoNation, who provides us with the most popular makes and models on the market. All of the cars present will be Certified Pre-Owned and Used vehicles. We’ve worked with the dealers to ensure that the sticker price reflects Kelley Blue Book pricing.

Please check this space the day before our sale for a list of the vehicles that will be available. We’ll have around 200 cars available for purchase. If you have any questions about specific cars before the car sale, please contact CarsNet at (714) 701-9186, ext. 1.

We look forward to seeing you there!

More Information for First Time Car Buyers

If you’d like to learn more about buying a car for the first time, or the types of financing and services we have to offer, click here

Thinking about buying a new car, or trading yours in?

Now is a great time to take advantage of aggressive manufacturer pricing and rebates on a new car or acquiring a pre-owned car with our low rate financing plans. We offer rate-competitive loans to help you buy your next new or pre-owned car.

Getting Started

You can start your search by using AutoSmartTM, a great website that can help you find a new or used vehicle, compare and contrast different models, and check the value of your trade-in.

Visit Us, Give Us a Call, or Apply Online

SF Fire Credit Union is committed to helping you make the most of your hard-earned money so you can reach your financial goals. If you need assistance or would like to discuss other borrowing needs, we’re always willing to help.

Whether you’re already carrying an SF Fire Credit Union Platinum Visa, or you’ve yet to apply, we want to make sure you’re aware of all of the great benefits of being a cardholder – benefits that can come in handy especially when traveling.

NO FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE OR TRANSACTION FEES

For frequent world travelers, you might be familiar with a 1-3% fee that is commonly charged when you make a transaction using cards from other financial institutions. When you use your SF Fire Credit Union Platinum Visa, you will not receive a foreign transaction fee charge or exchange fees, which can make keeping track of what you’re spending a little easier.

NO OVERLIMIT FEE

Speaking of keeping track of your spending while abroad, sometimes
miscalculations can happen (or emergencies). In the event that you go over your credit limit, it could be comforting to know that we do not charge overlimit fees.

A SOURCE OF OVERDRAFT PROTECTION FOR YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT

Much like giving our members some wiggle room by not charging an overlimit fee, you have the option to link your card to your checking account to use your Visa as a source of backup funds. Set this up within Online or Mobile Banking, or by contacting us.

VISA TRAVEL SERVICES

Visa offers a robust set of services for our members, they include:

Auto Collision Waiver: As long as you pay for your rental car with your Visa, your rental will have coverage at no additional charge that will reimburse for damage due to collision or theft .

Travel Emergency Assistance Services: Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, this service includes help with lost luggage location, ticket replacement, legal and medical referrals, and more.

POINTS EARNED ON PURCHASES WITH NO ANNUAL FEE

Lastly, all of that spending will help you earn Extra Awards points – where, for every dollar you spend, a point is earned that can be redeemed for cash, gift cards or future flights.

In January, 2012, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) began its systematic roll-out of the Financial Institution Record Match (FIRM) program. This program exists to authorize financial institutions (including banks, credit unions, insurance and brokerage companies) located in California to assist the FTB in matching the files of “debtors” in the Franchise Tax Board’s system against the accounts at their institutions.

WHAT DOES THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION RECORD MATCH PROGRAM ACCOMPLISH?

The Financial Institution Record Match (FIRM) Program identifies delinquent debtor accounts through a record match process. FIRM is an enforcement tool used to collect delinquent taxes and non-tax debts of individuals and business entities.

Coupled with FIRM is a second program called the FIDM (Financial Institution Data Match). Here, financial institutions compare their files with the State Child Support programs and conduct data matches to identify accounts of those who are delinquent on their child support.

HOW DOES SF FIRE CREDIT UNION COMPLY WITH THESE PROGRAMS?

Each quarter we upload a file to a state contracted company that runs our data against the list of individuals or entities who owe state taxes or other things the FTB is in charge of. If there are matches then we would move forward with a request for funds in the form of a garnishment from those individuals or entities.

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about the FIRM program, FTB or how we comply with these programs, please contact Chris Van Sickle, our Compliance Officer at cvansickle@sffirecu.org, or by mail at our California Street address.

It’s summer in San Francisco, having arrived on the heels of a spring which I’d certainly describe as being out of the ordinary. Many of us were euphoric over the success of the Golden State Warriors, who won their first NBA Championship since 1975. Regrettably, our members recently experienced a significant service failure, an event I would also consider to be out of the ordinary. Many of you are aware of (and were negatively impacted by) an ATM/Debit card network failure we experienced on the weekend of June 6th. First off, and on behalf of all of us at SF Fire Credit Union, I apologize for the inconvenience this caused. Having communicated with many of you during the outage, I know first-hand the stress this imposed on our membership. Failures such as this are unacceptable, and do not meet the level of service you expect and deserve, let alone meet the level of service we strive to deliver. I’d like to assure members that we’ve identified the cause of the failure, and have implemented safeguards to prevent this type of outage from occurring in the future.

Moving beyond these events, there’s certainly additional news and updates I’d like to share. I’m pleased to report that our financial performance remains strong, with continued profitability and ability to increase capital reserves. This is a direct reflection of our loyal membership, and being their financial institution of choice. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to meet your borrowing needs, be it a credit card, car loan, or mortgage. We also held several events which have proven popular with members, including a car sale (at a new Treasure Island location) and sensitive document shred days at all branches.

More is in store this coming summer and fall. We’re remodeling our Stonestown branch, with the goal of improving the ‘flow’ of the branch to improve the service experience at that location. Micro-chipenabled Visa Platinum credit cards, which offer a higher level of security as well as global usability, are ramping up in production. We’ve begun issuing chip-enabled cards to new cardholders, and expect to reissue all of our existing cards over the course of the next few months. A new Online Banking system is on the horizon. It will offer enhanced security, including unique user IDs for joint owners as well as two-factor authentication. And finally, our member events will continue, the next being at car sale the weekend of August 15th at the Cow Palace.

I hope to see you soon, be it at the Car Sale or at the Main Branch. If our paths don’t cross, know that I always welcome your questions or comments and encourage you to contact me via our website (“Ask Darren”), Twitter (@SFFireCU) or mail at our California Street address.

Many of our members were impacted by an ATM/DEBIT card network failure the Credit Union experienced the weekend of June 6th. As an organization who understands the importance of exceptional service, we recognize that this event and our recovery fell short of the service experience we strive to deliver. We apologize for the inconvenience this undoubtedly caused, as well the difficulty in reaching us due to the high volume of incoming calls and web chat sessions to our Contact Center during this time.

Cause of Failure

There are many ‘moving parts’ involved with a successful debit card transaction, which require various systems and entities to communicate with each other. We experienced a system error that disrupted this flow of data communication, which caused the network failure.

Measures to Prevent Future Occurrences

We’ve identified the origin of the system error which caused the failure, and have implemented safeguards to prevent this type of disruption from occurring in the future.

Review of Member Communication Channels

We’ll be evaluating the systems by which members currently communicate our Contact Center (phone and web chat), to provide faster response times during periods of high volume such as we experienced during this service failure.

Member Data is Secure

While the system outage involved a disruption of data communication, it’s important to know that this event did not compromise any account information and SF Fire Credit Union’s member data is secure.

We guarantee courtesy, accuracy and promptness at all times. If we do not meet these standards at any time, please let us know and we will apologize, correct the issue and credit your account $10, with no questions asked.

Deposits in SF Fire Credit Union are insured by American Share Insurance, the largest provider of private share insurance. Each SF Fire Credit Union deposit and certificate account is insured up to $250,000.

The institution is not federally insured. SF Fire Credit Union is not insured by any state government.

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